Fewer pledge allegiance to the GOP A poll says 35% of those surveyed identify with Republicans. Public attitudes seem to be drifting toward Democrats’ values. It always fascinates me that no matter how badly some leaders, even dictators, perform there is usually a large minority that will still honor and support them. Perhaps this is because some minority will always identify with the ideology, stability, dream or the comfort of a powerful personality. But for an increasing number of independently...

Medicare Still Pays Doctors Who Owe Back Taxes It seems to me that this is precisely the kind of issue sincere fiscal conservatives would jump on as low hanging fruit for improving government efficiency. Imagine how captivating it would be for the GOP to publish a list of 100 missed opportunities for making the government more efficient, and running on a platform of tackling each one.

Link The New Jersey Senate voted 27 – 3 to renew the state’s Clean Elections pilot project for another year. The bill, which easily passed in the state Assembly, will next go to Governor John Corzine (D), who is expected to sign it when it reaches his desk. Meanwhile Maryland lawmakers are close to voting on legislation that would bring Clean Elections to their state legislative races, and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-IL) set to introduce a bipartisan Fair Elections...

I tend to agree with the distinction Paul Krugman pointed out in today’s New York Times (Subscription) “Don’t Cry for Reagan” …Mr. Reagan’s administration, like Mr. Bush’s, was run by movement conservatives — people who built their careers by serving the alliance of wealthy individuals, corporate interests and the religious right that took shape in the 1960s and 1970s. And both cronyism and abuse of power are part of the movement conservative package. In...

The New York Times points out the craftiness of our legislators in Earmark Lives, but Dares Not Speak Its Name …But Republicans, who dispensed earmarks with relish until they lost control of the committee last November, are accusing the Democrats of larding up the bill to win members’ support. “Welcome Kmart shoppers,â€? said Representative Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky. “This is the shopping mart for those who are nervous about supporting the precipitous withdrawal...

On March 8, 2007, eight reform organizations wrote to all of the presidential candidates in both parties urging them to take steps to help save the system of spending limits and public financing for presidential elections. The organizations included the Americans for Campaign Reform, Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Campaign Action Fund, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG. It seems to me that most of these reform groups are left leaning in temperament....

Issues come and go, and how well we deal with them is a function of the availability of quality information and the openness of debate. These process issues concern me more than even the sensational issues like Iraq and National Health Care. My personal interest is in promoting open-minded deliberative debate of how to manage our society to optimize health, freedom and security. In particular how to make our elections more competitive and less dependent on special interest influence. And how...

In today’s “The Politico” Moderates Snub GOP Leadership discusses how moderate Congressional Republicans are voting more to reflect the moderate profile of their home districts with the clear understanding from party leaders that this is necessary to keep those seats in the next election. …What emerged was a large bloc of GOP lawmakers from blended districts who are voting consistently with Democrats on a wide range of issues. The new majority secured significant GOP support...

David Brooks notices in the New York Times column “The Vanishing Neoliberal” that larger and louder Liberals are overwhelming Centrists in the Democratic Party. …On policy matters, the neoliberals were liberal but not too liberal. They rejected interest-group politics and were suspicious of brain-dead unions. They tended to be hawkish on foreign policy, positive about capitalism, reformist when it came to the welfare state, and urbane but not militant on feminism and other social...

From The Wall Street Journal A New Seating Chart Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Susan Collins of Maine are mixing it up at the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. For future hearings, Democrats and Republicans won’t sit on opposite sides of the dais but rather, next to each other — alternating Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican etc. In a joint statement , Chairman Lieberman, an independent, and ranking Republican Collins, said “In the last election,...

Both parties are lining up potential candidates for Congress in ‘08. Do you know anything about these folks to indicate if they have a moderate temperament? Are they deal makers or ideologues? Are they pawns of special interests or independent thinkers? To whom would a moderate voter want to give a donation? Official Senate candidates: Colorado — Open Seat • Sen. Wayne Allard (R), retiring Former Rep. Scott McInnis (R) Rep. Mark Udall (D), below Idaho • Sen. Larry Craig (R) Robert...

In Bipartisan Hypocrisy Victor Davis Hanson writes at Real Clear Politics that: The political leaders of this country are essentially too often homogenous. Republicans may represent constituents of traditional values; Democrats may champion the underprivileged. But their similar lifestyles reflect more a political class’s shared privilege than the inherent differences of their respective constituents’ beliefs. National figures may talk conservative or liberal, but they both are more likely...

The Politico has a disappointing report on the realities of redistricting reform in California Redistricting and Blade Running …U.S. House Democrats from California, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. With their majority potentially threatened, the California delegation is prepared to spend $10 million fighting any ballot initiative that would take redistricting out of the hands of sitting politicians… Both parties fight to retain power by conspiring to keep districts uncompetitive....

Washington Times Sen. John McCain’s campaign is mounting a stealth effort to change Republican presidential nomination rules in California to allow independents to vote in the Feb. 5 primary, party and campaign officials in the state have told The Washington Times. The impact could be huge — and potentially damaging to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, currently the most acceptable to traditional-values voters among the three top-tier Republican presidential candidates. “If...

The Republican Leadership Council Inspired by a drive to get back to the fundamentals of the Republican Party, Senator John Danforth, Lt. Governor Michael Steele, and Governor Christine Todd Whitman created the political organization the Republican Leadership Council, which advocates for the historic Republican principles of liberty, individual responsibility, and personal freedom. RLC-PAC’s vision is a Republican Party that is unified by the basic tenets of fiscal responsibility and personal...

Four former Senate leaders. Howard Baker, R-Tenn.; George Mitchell, D-Maine; Bob Dole, R-Kan.; and Tom Daschle, D-S.D. have formed the The Bipartisan Policy Center aimed at putting aside partisan politics and offering solutions to the nation’s biggest issues. “We’ve all been leaders and you know how difficult it is,” said Dole, who served as both majority and minority leader between 1985 and 1996. “We’re all partisan in a way,” Dole said in an interview Monday,...

In the New York Times today three adjacent articles caught my attention. The House passed legislation to help Unions organize by allowing them to replace secret ballots with non secret ballots. It is asserted that businesses can intimidate union organizers and influence the secret ballot union vote. What is proposed is that Union organizers can approach each employee and ask them to sign a card endorsing the Union, thus bypassing a secret vote. It seems to me that this is merely exchanging the risk...

The Washington Post today has a commentary about The Myth of the Middle The writers observe that there is a wide disparity of opinion on controverisal issues between liberal, conservative and even independent voters and that their representatives are merely reflecting this divide. Centrism and bi-partisanship is a myth. This is a recurring topic because it is a comparison of apples and oranges: Policy and process. Most negotiations begin with the parties in opposition. But the possibilities for...

Two contrasting view points this week from the GOP From Governor Schwarzenegger Schwarzenegger stresses the importance of centrism in American politics, decries excessive partisanship and said the current system of political gerrymandering in which the vast majority of seats in the House of Representatives are heavily weighted in favor of one party or the other “creates extremism.� He favors redistricting such seats and also said he favors open primaries in every state so that Republicans...

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Senator Obama is the first presidential candidate to co-sponsor S. 436, essential legislation introduced by Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) to fix the presidential public financing system for future presidential elections. Senator Obama has provided important national leadership by becoming the first presidential candidate to sponsor vitally-needed reform legislation to protect the integrity of the presidency and to join in the battle for its passage. Companion legislation to fix the presidential...

Norquist takes aim at McCrery The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee has come under fire from conservative activist Grover Norquist for cooperating with Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on a package of small-business tax cuts that the committee approved on Monday. Norquist charged on Tuesday that the tax breaks — totaling more than $1.8 billion — are paid for by tax increases that Democrats will use against Ways and Means ranking member Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.) and...

From the Palm Beach Post this encouraging report on the Centrist tendencies of new Governor Charlie Crist. Not yet known, though, is whether these successes and even Crist’s stellar approval ratings can let him manage what could be his boldest but, so far, his least-publicized challenge: to remake the state Republican Party in his own, more centrist image. “Clearly a more tolerant party that believes in good law and order, sound financial discipline but … a true compassion for people...

Fred Barnes writing in the Weekly Standard praises Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell’s superior political skills: Mitch McConnell runs rings around Harry Reid. McConnell’s first major venture in exploiting minority rights in the Senate came in 1994 when Democrats still had a majority. A campaign finance reform bill that would have imposed public financing on congressional races had passed both houses of Congress. McConnell consulted Senate secretary Elizabeth Letchworth to find out...

Close the Bundling Loophole It’s no secret that lobbyists currently hold fundraisers and direct gobs of cash to both candidates and elected officials. What is secret is just how much cash is collected by lobbyists. Currently, they collect or arrange for cash to be sent to federal officeholders, candidates, leadership PACs and party committees. This funneling of money is called “bundling,” and the Senate’s new bill requires disclosure of this money in its lobbying and ethics...